(Nebula Award Winner; Hugo Award Nominee) The basis for the Academy Award–winning 1968 film Charly, the late Daniel Keyes's novel follows a mentally retarded man who suddenly attains a genius IQ through a medical experiment that was initially conducted on a mouse named Algernon. At first barely able to express himself, Charlie Gordon tells his story through journal entries that describe his increasing intelligence and how it changes his relationships and his sense of identity, as his emotional self struggles to catch up to his new intellect. But as Charlie begins to adjust to who he has become, he realizes he may just as quickly lose all he has gained.